How to make the move from marketing practitioner to marketing leader

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Here are two major mindset shifts necessary to be an effective team leader:

1. It's not your job to know everything. Don't pretend you do.
2. Just because you can do something, doesn't mean you should.

Obviously your role depends on the stage of the company you are working for.

Your job will look very different working deep in startup mode find the best go-to-market strategy, vs. working at a business in growth stage, where you are figuring out how to scale.

But through her own practice, Tara Robertson, CMO at Teamwork.com has identified two lessons that will make you a more effective leader regardless of the stage your company is at.

Let me summarize them for you:

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1. IT'S NOT YOUR JOB TO KNOW EVERYTHING. DON'T PRETEND TO.

• Many new leaders are crippled by imposter syndrome early in their career.
• They think they are responsible for needing to have an answer for all the things.
• They are scared and worried that if they don't, they'll be found out as incompetent.

But sometimes the best answer simply is: "I actually don't know that right now, but I'll find out"

And then you and your team go out and find that answer. Together.

→ Wherever you are in your career, you never have all the answers and you are not expected to.

2. JUST BECAUSE YOU CAN DO SOMETHING, DOESN'T MEAN YOU SHOULD.

• You come into a leadership position because you have experience and probably have been in the trenches yourself for years.
• That is a good thing, you have walked your talk. BUT this is not your job anymore.
  

→ Your job is to empower and serve the people that work with you.

→ Your job is to enable them to find the right answers and support them to grow and blossom in their careers.

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Instead of knowing and doing all the things yourself, your job as a leader is to hire people smarter than you and empower them to achieve their goals and move the company forward.

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